1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to fixing electronic components on printed circuit boards and more particularly to support studs for fixing an electronic component on a printed circuit board and a support comprising these studs.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Some components must be changed during the life of the printed circuit board, either because of a defect or for reasons related to the development of materials. Thus, when a more elaborate program has been perfected, the read only memories of the PROM type containing these programs are replaced. PROM memories are memories which can only be programmed once. The instruction of the program or the stored data can no longer be modified at will. Successive soldering and unsoldering operations adversely affect the reliability of the printed circuit boards. Double face printed circuit boards and multi layer printed circuit boards are the most fragile to a temperature rise. So intermediate supports are used for fixing an electronic component to the printed circuit board. Usually, the support is soldered to a printed circuit board. The use of two types of support are known for fixing integrated circuit boards to printed circuits. A first type of support allows plugging in the printed circuit boards and has the advantage of ready replacement of printed circuit boards without unsoldering or soldering. However, in the presence of vibrations, the support-integrated circuit electric connections risk being interrupted. This type of interruption, even though they only last an extremely short time, is very serious for digital circuits. If logic circuits are used, the logic state following these interruptions is indifferent. Furthermore, the support for plugging into the integrated circuit of the known type takes up considerable space in a vertical direction to allow plugging in. A second type of support which allows the integrated circuits of the known type to be soldered is formed by studs made from a conducting material shown in FIG. 1, joined together by a wafer of insulating material. As is explained below, this type of support presents difficulties for unsoldering the integrated circuits which it supports.